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OFFICIAL Arsenal team and preview for crucial Crystal Palace trip

It is not quite win or bust for Arsenal at Selhurst Park tonight, but after Liverpool, Man City, Tottenham Chelsea and even the draw specialists Man United won at the weekend you would have to say that the Gunners really need all three points tonight.

Our opponents have just hit a rocky patch in their recent return to form and with a huge injury list their manager Sam Allardyce would surely be happy with anything from tonight´s game, but that also adds to the pressure on the Gunners to come out firing and carry on the improvement we have seen lately.

With all this in mind it appears that even more focus than usual will be on the creative, attacking and scoring side of Arsenal´s game, with the Eagles likely to sit back and soak up the pressure while hoping for a breakaway goal. With Arsene Wenger having to do without the first and second choice keepers as well as our best defender Laurent Koscielny, this probably suits Arsenal as well.

The home team´s forward options are okay, though, and in form and with Cabaye a surprise inclusion after major doubts on his fitness I think we need to be careful and not too gung ho this evening. and with Coquelin on the bench the central midfield of Xhaka and Elneny must be disciplined as well as effective.

What more does it take for Wenger to GO???? Palace taking off their best players because they’re so comfortable, their fan’s OLEing. We pay the top season ticket prices in the world. It is not good enough to make 4th rate sides look like Barcelona.

Look back to the beginning of the season. The beginning of the end began once we changed what was working, which was consistently starting with Alexis through the middle. Giroud came on and scored some goals as a super sub, which prompted Arsene to give him a run of games as the starter through the middle. Since then, Alexis as our guaranteed 9 ended, and with it also went our quality fluidity and Ws. We’ve been bang average ever since.

Couple that with Santi goin down, which resulted in Arsene trying to force a Coquelin/Xhaka partnership, which never worked, and we’ve been a frustrating team ever since.

Why cant we ever get the balance right? When will we learn that Theo is not a soccer player? That Giroud is not Arsenal quality? We worry about losing the Ox, but what truthfully has the Ox consistently given us?

@rsh.
Captaincy got potato, at least an armband is being worn by someone this 2nd half more than can be said the other week.
This has got to be player mutiny, how can’t it be a repeat of Chelsea and mou, Leicester and ranieri.